Cinnamonkitty- it's certainly possible to incorporate some traditional Asian methods into your ceremony as a college student if you want. Check out this thread to see how little effort and money is really required.

Buzz, there is virtually no comparison between the 2 fukas. I like both, but the O-Cha one is top of its class...it is Supreme!

I agree with Sal, no question, if you use the proper amount of green leaf, it has a major caffeine content. I cannot compare it to coffee though since I never had a cup.

Warden, it is good to hear your contributions btw! You always offer a very different perspective, which I have noticed and appreciated from the IM, but, most of us cannot always see your comments there.

Sky, you use a tetsubin, girl, there are only 100 people in the USA using one, that is cool, and I hope you voted traditional Asian. I meant the question in a very liberal interpretation of tradtional as well as ceremony.

I hope everyone is enjoying the polls as much as I am. I am really amazed by the results. Like today's, I expected more English style brewers.

If you have a poll suggestion, please PM me. I think these up at the last minute usually and could always use and appreciate your contributions!!! PM me any ideas, thanx!

I am currently on my 2nd infusion of a coconut black tea, I will switch to the rose white tea soon. I drink tea all day, taking it to work with me in my French press travel mug. I just ordered a new tea pot for the weekend. The cat who likes to push things to the floor got some satisfaction of watching my last tea pot explode into a thousand pieces.

These past two days have not been tea friendly. It's impossible to think that I'm all TEAed out. I thinking about cozying up with a book pretty soon accompanied by some Russian Caravan and some Spearmint tea.

on my 4th cup of AliShan from teahome. Tried some Dong Ding from Teaspring earlier, it was pretty decent, but on the third brewing I forgot and overbrewed.

I follow Gong Fu loosely, but don't consider it a 'ceremony' per se. My personal style is driven largely by laziness, impatience and sensuality (the three driving forces of my life really).

1) preheat the brewing container. I like subtle teas so I tend to use gaiwans for greener teas and Yixing pots for puerh or anything oxidized or roasted to mellow the flavor. I'm digging aged teas nowdays for my heavier flavors, they have some of the edge off of them, more complex.
2) rinse the tea. Both the preheat water and rinse water go into my drinking cup to warm it, then back over the Yixing pot during brewing to keep the temperature up.
3) For most teas I tend to choose a higher temperature and shorter brew times. Most of the time I drink oolongs so that means boiling water for 30 seconds to start, then +10 seconds for each additional brew.
4) sometimes I use the fragrance and tasting cups, usually the first few brewings of a new tea, then I'm straight to a large ceramic cup of some kind.
5) the leaves go into garden compost pile, along with my wife's coffee grounds, dead leaves and the neighbor's grass clippings.

Chip wrote:Warden, it is good to hear your contributions btw! You always offer a very different perspective, which I have noticed and appreciated from the IM, but, most of us cannot always see your comments there.

I second Chip's comments. You have more experience and knowledge than most.

Scruff McGruff wrote:Cinnamonkitty- it's certainly possible to incorporate some traditional Asian methods into your ceremony as a college student if you want. Check out this thread to see how little effort and money is really required.

My main problem is finding the right gaiwan or a smaller pot for a not too large amount of money. I tried the personaliTEA, but realized my hot water heater heats up about half the amount of water to fill that pot, which in turn makes a terrible tea since the leaves can't expand with the small amount of water. I supposed if I wanted to play around with heating up two batches of water, storing the first in the travel mug, heating up a second batch of water, and then brewing the tea in the pot with both batches of water, that could work, but then temperature becomes an issue. It was also way too complicated and messy when I tried that. The tea managed to come out terrible in both attempts so I switched to using the filter from the personaliTEA in a 16 oz mug. That seems to work well enough until I can find what I am looking for.

I've checked some of the other mentioned tea sites for tea ware as well as the Ebay stores and have no clue what I am looking for. Right now I am waiting until I am home for a few days in mid-February to check the Oriental store at the mall and see what Dad had packed away for cups. I recall him having a set of Asian tea cups in a box in the basement somewhere, so I can hope he has other tea stuff in there too.

Who in their right mind would hate on that list? You've done Punxsutawney Phyll proud. (Yes, the spelling was intentional. Where the heck has Phyll been lately? He hasn't TeaDied, has he?.)

I'm a holiday ahead. I'm rokkin' out to Flogging Molly and sipping on some Irish Breakfast. Why? 'Cause I just got tickets to their concert in Indy on the 10th! I am beyond excited. Seeing them in concert was on my list of things to do before I die. Now I can finally get on with curing AIDS and ending world hunger.

My "tea ceremony" is more like a self indulgent experiment. I do whatever makes the tea taste good to me. I also get enjoyment from using my tea toys.
When I brew oolong, chinese green and whites I'm more relaxed about temps and times. Sencha seems to require more attention and tools to get a good cup.

Today I started with some dark Ti Kuan Yin in a gaiwan. I don't gong fu it because my gaiwans are too big.

Next up was some Emperor Long Jing that I brewed in my Kikumaru. The unglazed kyusu seems to bring out the flavor better for this light Long Jing.

Later I chose some Fukamushi Sencha Supreme, steeped in my Den's kyusu. I'm still getting to know this tea. I find it somewhat challenging to get a consistent brew without a scale (next on my to buy list).

Now I'm on my 5th cup of guricha which was brewed in the Dens pot. I like the way this tea changes with each infusion.

This is post #200 for our TeaDay forum...in 5 days. It is really exciting to see the participation for TeaChat's newest forum...but even more exciting that we are sharing our cups of tea.

I for one am learning more about many of you and your teas than I have since joining. For instance, I never knew Tenuki drank anything more than greener Taiwan oolong, although I have eagerly been reading his posts on that tea for quite some time.

I can only hope everyone is enjoying this forum as well. I would certainly welcome any feedback you have on how to make it better, just PM me. Thanx!

I finished my Huang Jin Gui ooloing earlier...so, I will get to open a new oolong in the next day or so. That is always exciting, but I will have to figure out what to open.

I am finishing my TeaDay with my Yame prefecture Takumi sencha. I went a little cooler with this as well as I did with the Guricha earlier. Maybe I do not like my sencha sweeter and milder, but I definately like this one brewed hotter as well.